Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons.
Macaulay.
4. Strength; power; firmness; inflexibility; as, to rule with a rod of
iron.
Bar iron. See Wrought iron (below). -- Bog iron, bog ore; limonite. See
Bog ore, under Bog. -- Cast iron (Metal.), an impure variety of iron,
containing from three to six percent of carbon, part of which is united
with a part of the iron, as a carbide, and the rest is uncombined, as
graphite. It there is little free carbon, the product is white iron; if
much of the carbon has separated as graphite, it is called gray iron.
See also Cast iron, in the Vocabulary. -- Fire irons. See under Fire,
n. -- Gray irons. See under Fire, n. -- Gray iron. See Cast iron
(above). -- It irons (Naut.), said of a sailing vessel, when, in
tacking, she comes up head to the wind and will not fill away on either
tack. -- Magnetic iron. See Magnetite. -- Malleable iron (Metal.), iron
sufficiently pure or soft to be capable of extension under the hammer;
also, specif., a kind of iron produced by removing a portion of the
carbon or other impurities from cast iron, rendering it less brittle,
and to some extent malleable. -- Meteoric iron (Chem.), iron forming a
large, and often the chief, ingredient of meteorites. It invariably
contains a small amount of nickel and cobalt. Cf. Meteorite. -- Pig
iron, the form in which cast iron is made at the blast furnace, being
run into molds, called pigs. -- Reduced iron. See under Reduced. --
Specular iron. See Hematite. -- Too many irons in the fire, too many
objects requiring the attention at once. -- White iron. See Cast iron
(above). -- Wrought iron (Metal.), the purest form of iron commonly
known in the arts, containing only about half of one per cent of
carbon. It is made either directly from the ore, as in the Catalan
forge or bloomery, or by purifying (puddling) cast iron in a
reverberatory furnace or refinery. It is tough, malleable, and ductile.
When formed into bars, it is called bar iron.